Translatable platforms like dollies and conveyors for transferring articles have numerous applications including loading dock and assembly line operations. In the baling industry for example natural and synthetic materials like polyester fibre are formed into a bale by a baling machine and transferred or doffed onto a conveyor for further processing or shipment. In the past it has been common to transfer articles, generally referred to as a load, onto a rigid platform of a conveyor or dolly, which may include an arrangement of parallel rollers on a load supporting surface to facilitate transferring the load to and from the platform. It is known in the baling industry for example to transfer the load onto an initially inclined platform, which is later lowered toward a level surface without restraint, to transfer the load. In this transfer process, however, the load is subject to an initial impact against the inclined platform and to a second impact when the inclined platform is lowered without restraint onto the level surface. Damage to bales in the fibre baling industry is usually not of great concern because the transferred bale is first wrapped in overlapping plastic bags and secured by strapping, which prevents spillage and contamination of bale material during bale transfer onto the rigid platform. In other applications however it is not possible or is at least undesirable to transfer the load without restraint directly onto a rigid platform, which may result in damage or spillage of the load. In the automated baling system disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/639,202 filed on Apr. 26, 1996and entitled "Method and System for Wrapping a Bale" for example, a naked bale is secured by strapping in the baling machine and is doffed onto a platform before being wrapped by plastic. The naked bales however have a tendency to spill bale material when doffed onto the rigid platforms of the prior art. Bale spillage is a serious problem resulting in waste bale material, which accumulates in the bale transfer environment where it can foul machinery and contaminate other bales. Other industries have similar load transferring constraints, which prohibit the use of existing load transferring technology.
In view of the discussion above, there exists a demonstrated need for an advancement in the art of transferring a load, onto a load supporting platform.